Gordon Raphael: The sixth Stroke

Some might think Gordon Raphael lucky. After all, he is the preferred producer of most lauded indie band in Britain, The Strokes. Raphael produced The Strokes' debut album, Is This It, which was voted No 1 record of 2001 by Billboard, NME and Time among others. In the following year, Raphael spent a lot of time touring and having fun with the band, who went on to win the Best International Newcomer award at the Brits in 2002. And after The Strokes had tested out Radiohead's producer, Nigel Godrich, they decided they would rather have Raphael producing their second album, too. Which he did, to many more rave reviews. But Raphael himself thinks that being The Strokes' producer is an extremely hard job that does not leave much to luck.

"It is really, really hard to produce a Strokes album. Their last record, Room on Fire, took three months rather than the scheduled seven weeks, and I only had three days off in the first 60 days I worked on it says Seattle-born Raphael. "They had me working from 1pm till 7.30am every day for three months, except for 10 days when we went to Tokyo. I felt like my bones were melting, my body felt really unusual - it just wasn't used to that kind of pressure. They pushed me to my ultimate capacity for detail and patience." Raphael looks physically worn out, reliving this summer's hard labour.

He's sitting in a neatly decorated purple room with a Magma lamp, bountiful old records, rare guitars and a very rare Gustav Klimt print (a birthday present from The Strokes), in London's Limehouse. This is the now fêted producer's new studio, in which he plans to produce and record albums by a handful of unknown bands he believes the world desperately needs to hear.

Raphael has been hailed as the sixth Stroke, his picture was even on the first album sleeve, along with the five boys, so he should know what makes the band so special. If you ask him to explain The Strokes' musical conquest of Britain, it does not involve the fact that the boys are pretty, that singer Julian Casablancas's dad runs the Elite Model agency, or that the band come from New York and began playing just when the time was ripe. No, according to Raphael, the band's recipe for success is hard work, almost obsessive attention to detail and a love of real rock. And the spice that makes the band go down particularly well in Britain? It is simply a special ability to communicate with the British audience.

"Julian Casablancas can hear micro details that shocks me. He has a musical ear and an attention to detail that surpasses my own," he says excitedly. "He is like the princess and the pea: if one tiny detail is out of place it is as if something slaps him across the face, and says 'I am wrong, I am wrong.'

"To make the overhead cymbal on one song ('The Way It Is' on the album's B-side) sound just like they wanted it, they made me work six days a week, eight hours a day. I'll never forget how sweaty and sick I was working on this silly sound until the boys finally smiled and said, 'Ok, now you got it right.'"

But Raphael has a novel take on what The Strokes have to offer. "I look at certain music like I do McDonald's. Some bands are just like another hamburger being stamped out. Yes, it might sell well, but doesn't it taste bland? I prefer a restaurant where the food is of a certain subtle quality. In restaurants where the food's like that, food is something special - not just junk food. That is exactly how it is with The Strokes."

While it might seem odd to consider your favourite band a dish, it is not half as odd as ascribing their success to being a heady brew of pretty New York boys, big record deals, groupies and Drew Barrymore (girlfriend of The Strokes' drummer Fabrizio Moretti) claims Raphael. In fact, he believes all the Strokes-related nonsense that the media favours has brushed away a minor musical revolution.

"Why doesn't the press talk about how wonderful Julian's singing voice is, how the melodies he sings are close to Bob Marley and Frank Sinatra? Or that The Strokes' record helped start a bit of a revolution away from DJ and house music into electric guitars and rock bands?" asks Raphael and insists that the sound of the band is not valued enough.

The producer, who heard The Strokes play a gig in 1998 and liked the band so much he asked to produce their demo, has worked with an endless list of New York and Seattle-based bands. The Strokes was the only one that became famous.

Dreaming of becoming a rock star himself, he played in rock bands from the age of 13. At the time when Seattle was a playground for the grunge bands, Raphael played alongside Alice in Chains, Nirvana and Mullholland, but his band, Sky Cries Mary, just never happened to make it big.

The idea that music is a thing you can live by has simply never left Raphael's mind. "I was too stupid to do anything else," he says and looks like he means it. "I never had money, never had a job, never had anywhere to live, but I had my guitar, my keyboard and my vocals; as long as I had that, I didn't care about the rest."

Though he might be a bit of rock-music oracle, he fails to say exactly why The Strokes made it. "I have met many profound musicians, but 99 per cent of them could not make it to the stage. Most of the best artists I have seen could never even get out of their basement or their living room, because they did not have that special something to communicate with the audience".

So, given the success that Raphael has had with The Strokes, why has he moved from his studio in the Big Apple to Limehouse, of all places? He says he is here for the company: "I realised that the people here are so much more into Strokes music than anywhere I've lived. So I thought that if I moved here, some good things would happen to me." Raphael also believes that London is buzzing with exciting live music - more so even than New York. And excitement was exactly what he was looking for when he started putting together his studio in Limehouse earlier this year.

Part of the fall-out of being told by Casablancas that Godrich would be producing The Strokes' second album, was that Raphael realised he needed to start something else exciting. "I thought 'If I don't get to work with the Strokes I'd better do something now that is very exciting, otherwise I'll feel very depressed when they go into the studio without me.'"

So Raphael found five bands to produce (his own outfit, Crystal Radio, London-based Miss Machine, British band Kill Keneda, The Satellites from Mallorca, and a female pianist from New York, Regina Spektor) and started his own record label, Shoplifter Records. Then came the call that The Strokes wanted him back.

He later introduced the pianist Regina Spektor to The Strokes and recently she sang a duet with Casablancas, "When Dogs Get Embarrassed", with Raphael producing. Don't bet against its being the first big hit on Raphael's freshly minted record label, when it comes out early next year.

The Strokes play Alexandra Palace, London N22, tonight and tomorrow (www.thestrokes.com)